The pre-Christmas rush to the shops was all the more intense this year due to an extra blanketing of snow, and the infrastructural craziness that came with it.

Lucky for us we’d done the majority of our shopping in the weeks before, and only had to pop out for a mere handful of things before holing up for the weekend. If we’d had any more to do there might well be blood on the streets.

On Tuesday we chanced a visit to IKEA, thinking that the heavy snow will keep the hordes away, and for once we were right – the place was deserted! Takes the stress out of it, y’know. Even though it took a while to get home – that included an hour waiting for a 37 on Dawson Street, in the midst of which we were ambushed by an RTÉ reporter and cameraman hunting for soundbites on the ‘travel chaos’. Oy vey. Next time someone sticks a TV camera in my face, I’ll just say no.

I didn’t even get upset until later, after giving up on the bus to catch a train that arrived both late and on the wrong platform, with no prior announcements. I’ve said it before: it’s not the delays that piss off passengers as much as the lack of proper communication.

Anyway, that being done with we could concentrate on enjoying a quiet Christmas at home. And that we did. Bee got me Carcassonne which looks fantastic, but we’ve been too wrapped up in other things to play it yet, like the Red vs Blue DVD set I got for her, not to mention the backlog of timeshifted movies and telly on the DVR.

That should be enough to keep us busy till the ice thaws and it’s safe to walk around outside again.

Achievement unlocked: All ingredients collected for a fine turkey dinner. Enough food to last a week!

Sun 26 Dec 2010 at 20:25   ·